The “EAT” acronym stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust.
This acronym first appeared in the 2015 iteration of the Google Search Quality Raters Guidelines, which is updated fairly regularly.
The EAT acronym isn’t a ranking factor in the strictest sense. But EAT gives marketers a good idea of winning the respect you deserve from your peers and customers.
Showcase your expertise, build your authority, and show your target audience that they can trust you. This should get your website to rank on Google!
In this post, we’ll look into how you can implement the principles of E-A-T. EAT focuses the message of your online business to help give you an edge in your marketing efforts.
Showcase Your Expertise With Content
One of the best and most sustainable ways of sharing your expert knowledge about your niche is creating content.
You can start by publishing blog posts or newsletters with unique insights about the topic. Thus, you tackle trends in your industry from different viewpoints that haven’t been discussed before by others.
A perfect example of people who do this is Kevin Indig.
Source: Kevin Indig
Over 4,500 engaged subscribers view his weekly newsletter “Growth Memo.” Kevin shares his thoughts about growth hacking, SEO, and other marketing concepts in ways that he only can.
Aside from his newsletter, Kevin maintains the Tech Bound podcast, where he talks to innovators in the tech space.
Therefore, aside from content, you can also promote yourself as an expert. You’ll connect with like-minded people and share your knowledge with the world on different platforms.
Establish Your Authority
It’s easy to confuse expertise with authority. The fact that one possesses knowledge about a topic should make him or her an authority, right?
However, one can’t be viewed as an expert if nobody acknowledges the existence of the said person.
Therefore, you can only be an authority if your peers and audience consider you as one!
Once you have shared your wealth of information, you should be able to exert authority by achieving the following:
Acquire Backlinks From Authoritative Sites
Ideally achieved by launching a link-building campaign, you convince influencers and site owners to link to your content. This works when your content provides useful information for their respective audiences or if you offer something of equal value.
When done successfully, you’ll increase your organic search rankings for your target keywords since high-quality backlinks are major ranking factors.
You can get more people to view your content from Google search and also get more backlinks in the process!
Get Featured on Different Platforms
Getting links from websites is one thing; getting interviewed for a podcast or webinar is another.
The main difference is more than just the SEO benefits. Now, hosts are the ones seeking you out for a guest spot on their platforms, not the other way around!
At this point, people are taking notice of the expertise you’ve exhibited from the content you’ve been churning out. They acknowledge and respect the wealth of information you possess. They want to talk to you and pick your brain with their audience.
Land Speaker Gigs in Industry-Relevant Conferences
Becoming a speaker in conferences is a feather on your cap, especially if you can land this by merit alone.
Similar to getting featured on podcasts or video interviews, organizers will invite you as a guest speaker in their conferences. They respect your views and opinions about industry trends.
However, you’ll have to develop a brand new topic to discuss in conferences that you and the organizers agree upon. There’s also greater pressure because you’ll present this in front of an audience.
There’s also a significant reward on the other side, especially if you’ve tackled the subject excellently in a unique way. More people will recognize your expertise and look up to you as an authority.
Show How Trustworthy You Are
With lots of authorities talking about the same thing, the one that will separate you from the rest is trust.
As people put their faith in you, they will visit your site to view your content and make purchases.
You may have to go the extra mile to sway people’s opinions and win them over to your brand.
Below are examples of how you can establish trust with them:
Prove You’re Human
People believe in something or someone that resonates with them. Therefore, being well-informed about a subject doesn’t matter. They’ll only trust you if they can relate to you on a human level.
That’s what your site’s About Me page is for. It allows you to share the backstory that led you to where you are now.
A great example of a sympathetic About Me page is from Adam Enfroy.
Source: Adam Enfroy
As an accomplished affiliate marketer, he details the growing pains he had to endure before becoming successful. This shows Adam’s audience that they can also overcome obstacles.
Get Positive Reviews
Customer reviews and testimonials from peers are representative of who you are as a leader in your field.
The majority of people view customer reviews first when forming an opinion about something or before making a purchase.
Poor reviews on platforms like TrustPilot, G2, and Yelp reflect badly on your ability to lead. This could lead to lower conversion rates. The site traffic you’re receiving won’t convert into prospects or customers because of the 1-star reviews you’ve been getting.
Therefore, by striving to generate positive testimonials at all times, you help influence the opinion that people have of you. And the more positive reviews you receive from people, the higher the conversion rate becomes!
Source: TrustPulse
Beef Up Your Security
By securing your website and other properties, you provide your customer’s data with an extra level of security. Even for non-customers, unsecured websites will never develop the trust they need with their audience to grow, much less survive.
It all starts with using HTTP/S on your website. By buying and installing an SSL certificate on your site, it will encrypt the data entered by users. Their information won’t get stolen as they travel from browser to server and back.
For e-commerce sites, security also refers to providing unhappy customers a way to refund the product they purchased from you.
It’s wise to indicate this in your Terms & Conditions and Refund Policy pages on your site. Customers want to know what will happen if they ever require a refund.
Conclusion
The goal of EAT is for businesses to make an extra effort to gain the trust of their target audience. They do this by leveraging their expertise to establish themselves as authorities in their field.
And if people acknowledge your brand because you practice EAT, expect your search engine ranking to follow suit!
Google prioritizes the best content from trustworthy brands to appear on SERPs. Your website should appear on the first page if you follow the tips above.
If you need help implementing EAT on your website, we at Romain Berg are more than happy to help! In fact, we have years of helping brands and businesses with our marketing expertise and services.
This way, we help set up strategies and campaigns for your website to establish you as an industry leader.
